“You still want to wait in this line?” he asked.
“Absolutely, I do. I need a sugary pick-me-up, especially after that unexpected run-in.” She blew out a breath.
“And your dessert in a cup isn’t enough?” He nudged his head toward the coffee in her hands.
“I can never get enough sugar, Spence. You know Mom and Dad always said the rhyme about girls being made of sugar and spice didn’t apply to me. That I was just spice. I’m working hard to fill in the sugar portion.”
He had to laugh at that.
They waited in line together, slowly making their way to the front. Fifteen minutes had passed by the time it was their turn to place their orders. The pastry case wasn’t as full as it had been when they’d arrived, but it wasn’t quite empty, and thankfully those butterscotch cookies were still available.
“I’ll take three of those,” Clara said, tapping the glass where the gooey treats rested on the other side. “And two blondies.” She turned her head toward Spencer. “You want anything?”
In that moment, he wasn’t really hungry for much, but his eyes landed on a tray of beautifully decorated cookies made to look like individual flowers, the icing piped in bright colors across the sugar cookies to create petals and leaves.
“Sure. I’ll take half a dozen of the flower cookies.”
“That’s the perfect amount,” Faith said as she slid open the case, “because I made six different varieties. I can put together a whole bouquet for you.”
She obviously wasn’t expectingto see him so soon. The moment Spencer opened the door to Joyful Blooms, he instantly read the surprise in Trinity’s expression, how her eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped into a line only a second before she recovered. Thankfully, a huge smile burst across her face, otherwiseSpencer would have been tempted to pivot on his heel and turn right back around.
“Spencer.” She hadn’t greeted him with a ‘hello’ or ‘hi,’ just his name, which he discovered he liked even more.
His chest quivered when he drew in a big breath and moved forward to come up to the counter. “Nice to see you looking so much better than yesterday.”
He shouldn’t have said that. She hadn’t looked bad. She’d looked great, in fact. But he knew how horribly she’d felt, and his comment was in reference to her health only.
“I’m feeling much better, thank you. Luckily, whatever it was must have just been a twenty-four-hour thing. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that Mia skates through without catching it. She would be devastated if anything kept her away from the barn, and that’s putting it lightly,” she said, then paused, her finger in the air like she was asking him to wait, too. “I owe you for yesterday. Let me run in the back and get my purse.”
“It can wait.” He lowered the pastry box to the counter. “Next time you come to the barn is fine.”
She smiled again, her cheeks pushing her eyes into a friendly grin. “You’ll have to remind me in case I forget.” Then her gaze dropped to the box, and she looked back up. “What is this?”
“I was just at the bakery with my sister and saw these.” Lifting the lid, he revealed the set of cookies that Faith had arranged into an edible bouquet. “Thought you could share them with Liam and Mia.”
“Oh, Spencer. These are so lovely. You’re so kind to think of us.”
If he was sharing the honest truth, he had thought about them a lot these past few days. Mostly, how he wanted to spend more time with them; picking paint colors for his house with Trinity, continuing to teach Mia about the care and keeping of horses, and letting Liam dig around in the ranch dirt, somethinghe’d noticed the boy was quite fond of, just like Spencer had been when he was a kid.
Spencer’s focus fell to the pile of flowers on the table between them, leaves pinched and placed aside while the long-stemmed blooms waited patiently to be added into the next bouquet. Trinity looked like she had her hands full.
“Is it just you in here today?”
“It is. I gave Rachel the day off since she’s been running the place solo these last couple of days. I figured she might like a peaceful day that didn’t involve flower and fauna.”
He didn’t know about that; it sounded like a pretty peaceful day to him. In fact, just being in the shop created a calm within him. Maybe it was all of the arrangements that softened the space, the delicate petals coupled with greenery that seemed to bring the outside in. Or maybe it was Trinity. She really did have a calming effect, and Spencer knew he wasn’t the only one to experience it.
Clara had said Nana Jo needed to keep an eye on her blood pressure. Maybe helping out at Joyful Blooms could be just as effective. He wasn’t sure if that was the way it even worked, but he figured it was worth suggesting the idea to his grandma. She really didn’t need another thing on her plate, but he had a hunch this might be the perfect place for her to escape the responsibilities of the ranch and let her creative side take over.
He pulled his thoughts back to the here and now and the beautiful woman standing across from him. Trinity really did look better than yesterday health-wise, but the scene around her hinted at a state of impending overwhelm. There was so much to be done.
“You need any help?”
She’d helped herself to one of the cookies, and she stopped mid-bite with his words. “In the shop?”
“Yeah, since it’s just you today. Can’t say I’m any good at making bouquets, but I’m one heck of a weeder, so that’s gotta count for something.”
“I could use some help stripping the leaves, if you don’t have anywhere you need to be.”
